In the field of beverage and liquid systems an apparatus, commonly known as a bag-in-box package, is used to store and dispense beverages such as soft drinks, fruit juices, water, or alcohol, but not limited thereto. Typically such bag-in-box packages comprise a collapsible bag or bladder disposed within a cardboard or plastic box. The bag is typically provided with a dispensing spout which protrudes through a side wall of the box for dispensing liquid stored within the bag.
One of the problems associated with early prior art bag-in-box packaging is that the tap or spout needs to be supported within one of the side walls of the box and this results in an accumulation of the liquid in the area of the box below the level of the tap or spout. Thus the residual portion of liquid remaining in the bag is wasted. It is cumbersome and awkward for a user to open the nearly empty box, remove the bag and to squeeze the remaining fluid out from the box. This problem is amplified when a bag and box container is located within a dispensing unit wherein access to the bag is restricted.
A number of attempts have been made to solve the above mentioned problems. European Patent No. EP 1 520 836, in the name of Model AG, discloses a bag-in-box dispensing apparatus in which the box is tilted at an angle to the dispensing apparatus to urge the liquid from the bag and box through a tap or spout. Another solution is proposed by US Patent Publication Number US 2003/0155372, which discloses a bag-in-box apparatus where the interior base of the box is sloped or terraced downwards towards the spout of the bag such that gravity helps the liquid towards the spout, as shown in FIG. 1 by the dotted lines. However this solution has been shown to be unsatisfactory as it still results in waste liquid forming at the base of the box.
The inventors of the present invention have overcome these problems with an improved bag-in-box system for dispensing liquids, as described in International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2008/065180. In the cited application, an extended section of the box is removable to permit the dispensing spout project through the box to a position lower than previously possible (substantially under the level of the base of said container) so that the liquid is fully dispensed without the need for additional manual force. This solution eliminates the requirement to manually squeeze the remaining liquid from the bag and is thus far more efficient.
A second improvement is to specifically introduce extra air into the bag which improves the dispensing rate of the fluid at lower volumes.
Although the bag-in-box system of PCT/EP2008/065180 is a significant improvement on the traditional bag-in-box systems, there is an underlying problem in that the spout may not remain in its lower dispensing position without external assistance. The applicants of the present invention have described in PCT/EP2008/065180 a capture mechanism to overcome this. However, the described capture mechanism is inconvenient to use. As one tries to manoeuvre the tap into the tap capture mechanism, the pressure of the water pressing out and against the tap makes the action of trying to manoeuvre the tap into the tap capture mechanism very cumbersome. The user has to contend with manoeuvring the tap into place whilst at the same time holding back a bulging bag of fluid.
The capture mechanism of the present invention overcomes some or all of the above-mentioned problems.